Leave Me a Phone Number

Zhu Yan needed Guan En.

This time, there was no room to refuse.

He asked, "What leads did you find?"

Guan En smiled helplessly again, looking at the sky outside.

"Myriad Forms Plaza is sealed off. It won't reopen for another week. I can't get to the [Hall of Mourning], so I can't buy anything from the online store."

Zhu Yan understood.

By his reckoning, Guan En was level two by now and had permission to buy Coexisting with Forbidden Things.

But because he hadn't opened an account, he couldn't pay online with Bone Coins.

In all fairness, Coexisting with Forbidden Things was an extremely useful reference book.

Without it, Guan En couldn't look up even the most basic information on the [Witch], the [Demon], or even the [Plague Ghost].

He had only learned the name [Plague Ghost] from the contract Zhu Yan had shoved at him back then.

As for the [Plague Ghost]'s ability to spread plague, he hadn't learned about it until he heard the broadcast after the instance ended.

Zhu Yan sighed softly. For the first time, he felt a little sorry for Guan En.

"After the instance ends, I'm planning to make time for a trip to the [Hall of Mourning]."

Guan En mentioned it, but didn't go any deeper into the subject.

He returned to the point and quickly told Zhu Yan what he knew.

"I could only ask my colleagues in Bailu City to look through the existing case files, but it seems no creature like the [Plague Ghost] has appeared there."

"How are things in Bailu City?" Zhu Yan suddenly grew curious.

In just a few days, Anwu City had already ended up like this.

So what about Bailu, where the instances had first broken out...

"The authorities have put some policies into effect." Guan En gave him a long look. "All supermarkets, convenience stores, shopping centers—every outside source of food you can think of—have been placed under centralized control."

"Things are better there than here, because the police station hasn't fallen, and there's no plague."

"Although there are a lot of players, the estimated number of survivors is no more than five thousand. They've recruited some capable players, surrounded the [Hall of Mourning], and established other quarantine zones at different levels."

"All in all, life is still manageable."

It sounded like a centralized wartime distribution system. Things were indeed fairly orderly.

"I also asked around about your aunt."

Zhu Yan gave Guan En a closer look.

Guan En really did need something from him. It seemed he had looked into everything Zhu Yan wanted to know besides the instance.

"She wants you dead," Guan En said bluntly. "But by my calculations, her next instance should come very soon."

His aunt's ability had already been taken away.

How could an ordinary person without an ability be lucky enough to survive a second instance?

Zhu Yan suddenly thought of the old house where he had lived for more than a decade, and for a moment he couldn't say how he felt.

So he nodded and pressed his lips together, using that terse response to show he didn't want to continue the subject.

Guan En understood.

"I need you," he reiterated. "I came here today to try my luck."

"If you hadn't come, I'd have had to wait a week to go to the [Hall of Mourning], but by then I'd be cutting it too close."

That was true.

If he waited a week to open an account, buy the book, and look up information, only to find no solution, he really would be like an ant on a hot pan.

Zhu Yan glanced at Guan En, unable to understand why he was still sticking to the rules at such a critical moment.

In his place, Zhu Yan would have forced his way into Myriad Forms Plaza, even at the risk of being killed to keep him quiet.

"Luckily, you showed up." Guan En forced a very strained smile. "Tell me. What do you need me for?"

"I'll cooperate all the way, on the condition that you keep me alive."

Zhu Yan only withheld the part about riding the [Monster Bus] and meeting the [Voodoo Doll].

He told Guan En what he knew about the [Witch] and the [Demon], patiently waited for him to finish reading the three forum posts riddled with mental pollution, and then laid out his plans in great detail.

Guan En listened with a frown, then took out his phone and searched through it very carefully for quite a while.

"If this person were in Anwu City, we could find a way to use the altar at the scene."

"But Anwu City is under strict control at the moment. So far, there haven't been any cases of a company employee suddenly dying or a woman living alone dying suddenly... but..."

He tapped rapidly on his phone screen and resumed his careful search.

"Anwu City is so big, there should be quite a few people involved in this kind of superstitious activity."

"I've more or less figured out how they think and operate..."

"Watch what you say," Zhu Yan couldn't help warning him. "They'll chop you into mince."

Guan En didn't even look up.

"There isn't that much of me," he replied, showing Zhu Yan the page on his phone.

"Found it."

It was a page on the Xianyu App. Zhu Yan couldn't imagine what keywords he had used to find these things.

"Local pickup... crystals, candles, a wand, a brass sword?!"

Guan En nodded.

"I looked through social media. People like this are very particular about the altars they set up, so they definitely wouldn't rent out the space directly."

"Most of what they sell is stuff like crystals and candles, and some of it still requires a wait."

"Finding someone selling a wand without having to wait for it to be made and shipped internationally is already pretty good."

Guan En took his phone back and looked at it.

"Hmm... this wand also looks a lot like the one used in that player's post. Some people set big crystals into these things. Those probably can't be used."

All right, then.

In that short time, Guan En had already placed an order and arranged a pickup time with the seller.

Zhu Yan leaned over to look. All those assorted items had actually cost Guan En more than ten thousand yuan.

"...Why is it so expensive?"

Coexisting with Forbidden Things only cost two hundred yuan.

His [Savings Silver Ring] had cost a mere twenty thousand!

"They say it has good energy. Can this lure in a horror creature?" Guan En frowned. "You'd better not actually have good energy."

Zhu Yan felt like laughing.

"So, do you know how to perform the ritual?" he asked.

It was already dark. The streetlights outside had come on, and the snack street was gradually growing busier.

Guan En glanced outside and slipped Zhu Yan a note he had written in advance.

"My address. I don't know how to perform the ritual, but I can teach myself on a video site."

"I suspect that as long as it's a player, even throwing an altar together and making a halfhearted attempt would have a good chance of attracting the [Demon]."

"After all, according to your book and what the [Witch] said in the post, the versions of The Key of Solomon available to us are full of errors and omissions to begin with."

"But for non-players, that might not be the case."

It was a very reasonable guess.

Zhu Yan asked, "So the Lesser Key of Solomon and The Key of Solomon..."

"The 'Key' is divided into the 'Great Key' and the 'Lesser Key,'" Guan En explained briefly. "I just looked it up."

"I'm going to pick the things up now, so I won't stay here any longer."

"Do you need time to prepare or rest?"

"No." Zhu Yan shook his head.

There wasn't much point in preparing at a time like this.

When had he ever cleared an instance without dealing with problems as they came?

"All right," Guan En said. "I don't need to prepare either."

He pulled out a pen and a stack of sticky notes.

"Staying alive comes first. Neither of us should worry about the consequences for now."

"Leave me a phone number. Any number where I can reach you will do."

"I'll tell you as soon as I hear the broadcast."